Now you wait,
Like the drug, like the change in the pain it goes on
For so long
And oh,
How it hurts in the worst way, now that you're gone,
It's so wrong, it's so wro-

Brendon groaned, slamming his hand onto the snooze button of his alarm clock and ending the flow of words that was his wake up call. His hand withdrew into the warm shelter of his downy comforter, which he pulled closer around his mostly-naked body. Brendon didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t sleep, and school most definitely wasn’t sleep. So he let himself drift off into his tortured dreams, just wanting to be rid of the horrible reality that was the first day of school. He wanted to forget the events of the past summer. To forget the girl with beautiful black hair, the girl that made his still heart flutter every time he laid eyes on her. The girl with the smell so beautiful he was addicted to it like a drug, the girl that Brendon would get her presents, just to see her smile. To forget the gruesome way she had died.

As Brendon’s breathing evened out and his body relaxed, someone decided to bang on his door a few times. Brendon was jolted back into the world of the living and he cursed.

“Go away!”

The person at his door ignored his wishes and banged on the door again, before seeming to realize that Brendon’s bedroom door was unlocked. The door swung open, and Ryan Ross bounded in, overly energetic as always.

“BRENDON-FACE!!!” he yelled, jumping on the Brendon-shaped lump. “GET UP!”

Brendon’s face was smashed into his mattress as Ryan landed on him. Ryan was the thinnest, and most bony kid Brendon knew, but he was heavier than he looked.

“Get off me before I shoot you in the face,” Brendon threatened. Not like he needed any weapons if he wanted to kill Ryan. He had his own set of human-killers, built right into his body.
“GET UP BEFORE I’M FORCED TO TICKLE YOU!” Ryan screamed back at him.

Brendon didn’t respond. In a very typical Brendon-ish manner, he twisted in Ryan’s grip, lifted a leg, and kicked him very solidly in the genitals, which already had to be hurting like a motherfucker due to the limited room Ryan had in those tiny girl jeans. Not too hard though…he reminded himself.

Over Ryan’s screaming, Brendon heard a soft sigh from the doorway. He looked up to see Ryan’s girlfriend leaning against the doorframe of his bedroom. She raised an eyebrow at Brendon from beneath her bangs, which made him send her an apologetic look. Maddi was the only person Brendon was really afraid of, because he’d seen her take down the football team. Not a football player, but the whole team. When she was in tenth grade, her best friend, Paige, had been dating Andy Hurley, the star quarterback. Turns out he was gay, and Paige had caught him and some guy sucking face behind the bleachers. Maddi had practically killed Andy for breaking Paige’s heart, which pissed off the whole team, and when they yelled at her, she pretty much killed them too. Brendon thought there was a reason why she had brass knuckles in her purse. Even so, Brendon knew that she couldn’t do any real damage to him, he had rock hard skin, and instincts that would go off and break her arm before her punch landed. Still though, he reckoned she would put up a pretty good fight.

Maddi walked over and kneeled next to Ryan, her blackish-purple bangs falling into her face, the rest of her violently poofed hair staying where it was due to the amount of hairspray she put in it. She picked him up and looked him in the eye.

“Ryan. Shut up now.”

He immediately stopped wailing, a grin spreading across his face. “Make me,” he challenged.

She set him down, then threw her arms around his neck and pressed their lips together.

Brendon rolled his eyes and flopped back down onto bed, not amused with Ryan’s horniness. He sighed and stood, the cold hardwood floors raising goosebumps on his arms. He ignored the happy couple, digging through his closet until he found some semi-matching clothes that were only a little dirty. He pulled his clothes on, along with a pair of black converse, and decided his hair looked fine the way it was. He picked up a shoe from his floor and threw it at Ryan, hitting him solidly in the head.

“Please try to contain your hormones, I don’t want to watch you rape Madison. Now get out of my room so we can go sit in the air-conditioned hellhole of school.”

Ryan pulled away with a pout, but, having achieved his goal of getting Brendon up, smiled and walked out the door hand in hand with Maddi.

Brendon walked up to the huge high school of Las Vegas, population…more than 3000. Yeah. It’s huge. As he looked around, his hopes of something changing this year were crushed. Over in the parking lot, Spencer’s car was rocking rhythmically, and since Jon was nowhere to be found, Brendon was pretty sure what was going on over there. Natalie and Gabe were sitting on a bench utterly zoned out in their headphones, once again wearing their matching oversized purple hoodies. Pete was walking around with Chelsea on his shoulders, who had a camera hanging around her neck. Brendon watched as she yanked on his hair to stop him, then raised the camera and snapped a picture of the barely-risen sun. Caro was sitting on the hood of her car, scribbling furiously in a purple notebook. William sat next to her, absentmindedly playing with a piece of her black-blue hair. Brendon sighed, feeling lonely. Around this time, Brendon would have been at Starbucks with Allie, standing by as she ordered her favorite drink, then watching as she sipped at it, until they realized that, oh shit, they were late for school.

Brendon barely registered that the bell had rung for homeroom, until he was knocked over onto the hard concrete. He stood, unhurt, looking angrily for the unfortunate freshman that had knocked him down. His anger evaporated, however, along with his memories of Allie, the moment he saw who was hurriedly gathering the spilled contents of her purse. She was petite, her short dark brown hair falling lightly around her face. It was shorter in the back, and got long in the front, and was heavily layered. She wore a black skirt with black knee-high converse, with a deep red tank top. When she stood, she was only a couple inches shorter than himself. She looked up, an apology on her lips, but in the single second their eyes met the words died away. She had beautiful blue eyes, with just a small rim of honey brown at the center, complimented by the thin lining of eyeliner she had on.

“Um, hi,” Brendon stuttered, unable to break his gaze. He hoped his brown contacts were still covering the red.

“Hi.” She replied, a light blush rising on her cheeks. He stopped breathing until the blush had gone down. “Um, I’m Kathryn. You can call me Ryn though.” She smiled.

“I’m Brendon.” He smiled back. “Uh, are you new here? I’ve never seen you before.”

“Yeah, I just moved here.”

“Oh, what’s your homeroom? I’ll point you in the right direction.”

“Miss McCombe.”

“That’s who I have too. You can come with me,” Brendon offered. Before she could refuse his offer though, he began walking. She followed after him.

He wondered who she was, where she had come from, what her favorite flavor of ice cream was.

Mostly, though, he wondered if she could ever love a vampire.

*****************************

okay! well. I know that i didn't really elaborate on caro, chelsea, or natalie yet. BUT I WILL. don't worry your little heads off. Next chapter. Promise. It was just, that seemed like the wrong time to, like, tell what everyone looked like and such. :] so don't hate me.

I'll have a new chapter up within the next week.

By the way, I know i'm being terribly predictable in making this a vampy story. but its not your typical vampire story. I promise youuuuuu. ^^